Sloppy Heads - Sometimes Just One Second (2023) Hi-Res

Because sometimes a massive, minde-expanding dose of psychedelic indie-rock freakiness & soothing ’60s pop charm is just with your inner pharmacologist ordered. Sometimes Just One Second by the Sloppy Heads goes against everything the Sloppy Heads have fought for as a band, which is the radical freedom to ignore the square world and spend their time at their practice space in Brooklyn, New York, slowly writing songs, being heads, refining their hipster jive talk, and accumulating a private sessionography of legendary jams. The gist of the truth is that the Sloppy Heads are three old friends who collaborate as fully as possible, switch instruments, and have a long secret history of which Sometimes Just One Second is the most un-secret manifestation to date.

The 14 tracks of Sometimes Just One Second invite you to open your third ear to a world of kaleidoscopic slop-rock, by turns noisy, tender, layered, fast, slow, vibey, luxurious, concise, and over the top. With 13 originals and one universe-folding cover of the Grateful Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie,” each represents a new and vivid musical adventure for your Sloppies, a trio consisting of Ariella Stok, Bill the Drummer, and Jimmy Jumpjump (a stage-name for James Allen Jumpjump Jr.). It also represents a new milestone in a discography of low-key hand-made cassettes, CDRs, 7-inches, flexies, and compilation appearances. Having recorded their full-length debut Useless Smile (Shrimper, 2016) in their Headsquarters practice pad, Sometimes Just One Second represents the trio’s first extended trip with a proper studio and all its charms. Recorded and mixed by Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor) at his Marlborough Farms in leafy Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, the three Sloppies are once again joined by auxiliary Head and spiritual advisor James McNew (Dump, Yo La Tengo), who glows across all 14 album tracks.

Formed in 2009 and gracing the stages of New York’s finest DIY rock palaces ever since, the Sloppy Heads are situated in their own personal underground, happily floating through a self-defined dream of an uncluttered and hassle-free musical life. On Sometimes Just One Second that manifests in release by the impeccable long-running Shrimper label, a front cover by immortal punk/psychedelic artist Gary Panter (Jimbo, Crashpad, Slash, Pee Wee’s Playhouse), and a back cover collaboration between Jimmy Jumpjump and Sesame Street/CTW animator Al Jarnow (subject of Numero Group’s Celestial Navigations), who created the cover for the band’s debut and also animated a video for the new album’s first single, the freaked-out cosmic dance party “Love Is A Disease.”

Though resembling a rock band, the trio’s collective CV includes much else besides, participants in musical horizons that have included work with Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros, NYC jazz eminence Daniel Carter, live radio experiments, and old-fashioned psychedelic happenings. While probably they’ll mostly continue their weekly hang at Headsquarters, the Sloppy Heads also continue to seek new adventures to go along with the various stone gasses they’ve experienced, including (but not limited to) a trip to the Visefestival in beautiful Egersund, Norway, a performance at Half Japanese’s freaky fam friendly Maryland-based Shakemore fest, live appearances on WFMU, airplay on Jonathan Lethem’s KSPC show, a few gigs opening for all-time Heads’ heroes Lambchop in Washington DC and NYC, recording their debut single with Kid Millions at Oneida’s Ocropolis (and contributing to the Oneida-curated Koozies, Woodies, and Beers benefit compilation), inclusion on a Mike McGonigal YETI zine CD mix, and that time they served face-meltingly hot chicken at a basement gig in Bed-Stuy and people ate it and freaked out. Sometimes Just One Second has been an excellent adventure so far. They look forward to blasting more custies and finding more heads.